Layers
by theLegendoftheDekuShrub
Summary: When the team finds the body of a man who looks remarkably like Dr Horrible, Castle finds himself struggling to keep his past identity a secret. DrH's Sing-Along-Blog crossover. Caskett.
1. Chapter 1

**Layers - Chapter 1**

After screwing up his first life, it was a miracle how much of a success his new one was. Once Captain Hammer had finished crying himself through therapy all those years ago, he finally decided to fix himself up. He erased every record of Captain Hammer ever existing and returned to addressing himself by his birth name. Richard Castle.

He wasn't quite sure how he was supposed to achieve this but he remembered his arch nemesis Dr Horrible mentioning he owned a memory loss ray.  
>So one night, he snuck into Dr Horrible's old abandoned lair and proceeded to pinch anything that he pleased, including the memory loss ray and a packet of potato chips. Once obtaining the memory loss ray, which he was surprised to discover actually worked, he stood in front of his computer screen and zapped away any and every last trace of Captain Hammer he could find. The fansite, the youtube videos of him beating up Dr Horrible, all the disturbing fanart of him and Dr Horrible, even Sing-Along Blog all perished.<p>

He could finally begin his new life as Richard Castle.  
>He moved to the Big Apple and wrote his bestselling debut mystery novel, <em>In a Hail of Bullets, <em>which hit the _New York Times Best Seller _list big time.  
>He met a girl, got her pregnant and ended up with a daughter who still dazzled him every day. He wrote, wrote, and wrote some more, each book selling better than the last. Eventually he came to the NYPD and fell head over heels in love with a badass detective, but he was still working on making that relationship happen. His life was a rollercoaster but he loved every moment of it – except today, as he stood over the body of what could be none other than Dr Horrible's secret twin brother, he knew that before long the life he had so carefully constructed was soon to come crashing down around him.<p>

He stood frozen in place, barely gripping onto the two polystyrene coffee mugs he bought that morning.

"Thanks," said Kate as she took the second one out of his hands. "Are you alright?"

No, he was not alright! He's arch nemesis' twin – who was presumably evil too – was lying dead into front of him and he just knew then and there that he was in for it. He may as well just pack up his bags now and move to some other place in the United States. Or maybe Antarctica. But he couldn't leave because he was too hopelessly in love with the woman standing next to him. So glared at her in response.

"What?"

"Nothing. At all. I'm fine." He cleared his throat and forced himself to glance back at the body. "So, what've we got here, Beckett?"

Kate sniffed and crouched down by the body to search for ID, finding the man's wallet. She flipped it open. "Name's Barney Stinson. 42 years old."

That was odd. Castle had never heard of anyone by that name, so this Barney fellow had obviously never been associated with his twin. Maybe he wasn't evil at all. Maybe he was just some guy who had the misfortune of resembling so closely the looks of his evil brother. His thoughts were interrupted by a hard clap on the back.

"Sup Castle," Esposito joked as he strolled over with Ryan. The two younger man glanced down at the body lying in front of them and did a double take. "Holy shit!"

Beckett whipped around to face them. "You know this guy?"

"Well, you could put it that way," scoffed Ryan. "Either the evil mastermind has finally been killed or this guy looks a helluva lot like Dr Horrible."

"Who's Dr Horrible?" Kate asked quizzically.

"You don't know who Dr Horrible is?" cried out Esposito. "He's just about the most villainous villain of all the villains in America."  
>"In the world," Ryan interjected.<p>

"In the universe!" Esposito added.

"In the … He's just really great."

"What makes him so special?" Kate inquired.  
>"Well, you see, we can't really remember," said Ryan.<br>"What do you mean you can't remember?"

"Well we forgot, didn't we?" said Esposito.  
>"Just like an evil criminal mastermind would want you to," said Castle. He decided to throw in a typical geeky rant to remove any suspicion."My theory is this: what if this Dr Horrible fella had an evil doppelganger just like in that movie where everyone had an evil twin they never knew they had, and they were actually aliens from a parallel universe trying to take over the planet. And then they erased everyone's memories and they were turned into their slaves. "<br>"There is no such thing as aliens!" Kate exclaimed.  
>"You've told me that before, and guess what."<p>

"They weren't aliens."  
>"But it was close enough."<p>

The tension between the two of them was so thick that it was making Ryan feel uncomfortable and he felt the need to say something about it. "I agree with Castle."

Kate sighed. "Right. Well, if you guys are so convinced this guy is a twin of your superhero, villain guy, then feel free to investigate that angle. I'm gonna work on actually catching the killer."

Ryan almost bounced and he turned to Esposito. "Man, this is gonna be the best investigation ever!"

Castle wiped his sweaty palms on his jacket and took a deep breath. He knew this team was good. He'd been working with them for a long time now. Unfortunately for him, he was sure that these two would be able to uncover something that exposed him for who he used to be. Once Beckett found out... he didn't want to think about that. If anything would screw up his chance with her, then this would be it.

**Thanks for reading and let us know what you think. Reviews are very much appreciated. :)  
>~ aurorstorm and TheBlackTower'sCurse <strong>


	2. Chapter 2

**Layers - Chapter 2 **

The body of Barney Stinson was taken back to the lab for further testing. Meanwhile, Castle was freaking out. It was only a matter of time before they confirmed the connection to Dr Horrible and discovered where he was. Castle would not be looking forward to that day at the 12th precinct. If only he could find a way to divert the case …

"So, Beckett," he said as he strolled over to the detective, trying to hide his fear, "if you won't miss me too much, I'm actually gonna head home."

She laughed at him and winked. God, that smile. It still did funny things to his stomach. "All this superhero stuff getting a bit too exciting for you, Castle?"

"Something like that. Look, I'll see you round, yeah?"

"Sure." She raised an eyebrow at him but smiled again as he left. His pace quickened once he'd left the room and he hurried out of the precinct. An idea had begun to form in his head, but the very thought was making him ill. Could he do it? Could he go back to his former life to prevent the destruction of this one? Or would he be contributing to his own destruction? Such thoughts filled his head throughout his journey in the New York traffic all the way back to his loft.

"You're home early," Martha Rodgers stated as he threw his keys into the kitchen counter. "Rough day?"

"It's just this case Beckett's working on. It's too …," he pondered for the right word.

"Complicated?" Martha suggested.

"You have no idea."

"You keep forgetting, Richard. You're not a cop. You're a writer." She clapped him on the shoulder as he passed her. "It's not your job to solve Beckett's cases, although it's sweet that you try. Maybe you should just see how this one plays out. Maybe it won't be so complicated after all," she said.

"Maybe."

"Now go take a nap," she ordered.

"But I'm not tired," he whined.

"Don't play that card with me, young man. I know that look on your face. You need rest," she insisted, chasing him out of the kitchen.

"Okay, okay, I'll take a nap."

But he didn't. He went to his room and made sure to hit the lock on the door first. This was something that nobody could ever see. He crawled onto his bed and reached around behind the bedhead until his fingers found the calculator built in to the wooden frame – but this wasn't any ordinary calculator. He quickly punched in the code and strolled over to his closet. Shoving all the clothes aside, he noticed with relief and apprehension that a latch had appeared. He sucked in a deep breath and pulled the latch open.

Little did the architects know that Castle had designed a closet that opened up to the 'ventilation system' – a quick blast of his memory ray had fixed that. He crawled his way up the secret passageway, aided by small steel rungs, until his head smacked into metal with a loud crash. _Ow._ Rubbing his scalp and wincing, he found the next modified calculator and punched in a second code. The dead-end he had hit swung open and Castle pulled himself out into his secret attic, coughing violently due to the dust that had accumulated over so many years. This attic was another minor feature Castle had covered up with the memory ray.

Brushing away the gauzy cobwebs, he stepped over the threshold into this secret lair. It was a duplicate of his old Command Centre from back in Los Angeles. Sometimes he missed the old days. Beating the crap out of Dr Horrible all day definitely had its advantages. However, upon discovering that Dr Horrible was once again roaming the streets of his town, it was time to kick his arse back to Los Angeles.

He switched the light on and the entire room ignited almost blinding his eyes. He'd have to start getting used to this again. The design of the room was a combination of the Batman's batcave and the Starship Enterprise's bridge from Star Trek and Castle believed it to be the best damn secret lair in superhero history. It was that good.

His Captain Hammer t-shirt was hanging up on a wall, and he walked slowly over to it. The shirt was covered in a layer of dust which he blew off, and he held the shirt gently in his arms for a moment. When he wore this shirt, he _became_ Captain Hammer. This one t-shirt carried a hell of a lot of weight. Castle sighed and took off his sweater, pulling the t-shirt over his head. He caught sight of his reflection in a mirror. Luckily he hadn't put on too many pounds since his Captain Hammer days, but the t-shirt was very tight and now showed off his belly a little more than his abs. There was something different though. When he saw himself, he saw _power._

And boy, did that power feel good. But he needed to stop being so dramatic. He needed to get back to the real world and start searching for Dr Horrible. And what better way to do that than tuning into his blog.

Castle pulled out his cell and tapped in the URL for Dr Horrible's blog into his browser, only to be greeted by 'This page can not be displayed'. _Whoops._ Of course, the blog had been deleted when he had used the memory ray. Dr Horrible had written about him too many times for the blog to be allowed to exist.

A thought struck him, and he quickly navigated to Google and typed in 'Barney Stinson.' Sure enough, a blog turned up in the results. Reminding himself not to get his hopes up, that the victim could just have his own blog, he loaded the page. Except it wasn't any ordinary blog. The heading read 'DR HORRIBLE'S SUPER SECRET STOLEN BLOG THAT CAPTAIN HAMMER CAN'T DESTROY THIS TIME MUHAHAHAHA'.

Castle chuckled to himself. His nemesis really wasn't one for subtlety, he thought, as he settled himself down on his plush couch and began to read.

To be continued!


	3. Chapter 3

**Layers - Chapter 3**

* * *

><p>Dr Horrible could have published an entire novel of ridiculous blog posts. Castle couldn't help but laugh at his arch nemesis' tomfoolery and stupidity. How humiliating it was for him to have to admit defeat from this moron! But it was time to get back and show Dr Horrible who was really in charge. ...just after he watched <em>Zombie Genocide. <em>

Two giant bags of popcorn later, Castle decided that perhaps he should maybe get moving a little bit faster on this Dr Horrible thing. He pulled out his phone again and began scanning the blog for some kind of mention of a plan that Dr Horrible was actually acting on - and his stomach seemed to sink through the floor when he read the words '12th Precinct.'

"He's planning to steal our evidence on the doppelganger case?" Castle shouted to the empty room and leapt to his feet. "Not on my watch!"

He dashed towards the special shelf where he kept his folded uniform and sighed as he ran the fabric through his hands. There was no way he could defend the precinct wearing his Captain Hammer outfit in this physical state. He'd look like such an ass, especially in front of Beckett. So Castle resolved that instant to spend the rest of the week intensely training and returning to top form.

"Mother?" He called out as he descended from the lair back into his bedroom. "Do I still have a gym membership?"

Meanwhile, Dr Horrible was already enacting his plan. It was late in the evening so not many cops were around to see him commando crawling along the ceiling, which was good. He could have waited until nightfall but that's what most villains tended to do. Dr Horrible was not like them. He liked to do things differently. He turned a corner and immediately discovered a flaw in his cunning ceiling plan. How was he going to open the door?

"Crap!" he muttered.

A hot female detective looked around for the source of the noise. Dr Horrible held his breath. He was afraid he was going to get caught, yet at the same time he couldn't help but instantly fall in love with this woman. The sudden rush of adoration made him lose control of his limbs and he tumbled from the roof, landing in a crumpled heap on the floor.

"Oh my god. Are you okay?" Dr Horrible watched the detective run over towards him in his haze, and gave her a dopey smile.

"Never better," he sighed.

The woman helped him up from the ground, glaring at him suspiciously. "Who exactly are you and what exactly were you doing on the ceiling?"

"My name's Dr-I mean, Swarley. Steve Swarley," he flustered. "Yeah. Call me Steve. And this is Wendy. My pride and joy." He said as he stroked his fake moustache tenderly.

"Right, Steve ... and Wendy, so why were you two crawling around up there?" she drawled.

"I'm the maintenance man. Checking the air vents, you know, maintenance stuff."

She raised an eyebrow. "So these high tech gloves holding you to the ceiling..."

"New technology. I'm uh, in charge of testing it. Pretty neat, huh?" He winked at her and laughed nervously.

"Whatever," she sighed. "I have work to get on with." She turned to walk back to her desk, much to Dr Horrible's dismay.

"Wait!" he cried. She whipped back around to face him, rolling her eyes. "What's your name!"

"Beckett. Detective. Now leave me alone."

Dr Horrible stared dreamily in Beckett's direction for a few minutes before finally remembering his super awesome evil plan and dashing through the doorway towards the evidence storage.

_Darn it_. There were too many stupid boxes. Where the hell was he supposed to start in this mess? Well it was a good thing that he brought his find-a-thingamabob ray with him. He pulled his goggles over his eyes and aimed the find-a-thingamabob ray at the centre of the room. He triggered the ray and a red ball of light blasted into the room. Thank goodness he zapped it with the silence ray earlier, otherwise the precinct would have heard it.

The red light floated in mid air, waiting for its first command.

"Go find Barney Stinson's identification and all evidence collected from his crime scene," he ordered.

The light buzzed with excitement and began its search.

He only had to wait a few seconds for the light to work its magic. The box that hopefully contained all of the evidence from the Barney Stinson case was illuminated like a lighthouse. He opened the box and the light extinguished.

Dr Horrible quickly gathered the evidence up with his Put-it-in-your-pocket ray, but he realised that some of the forensic evidence had already been taken down to the lab. He got out his plans for the building and noted that the ventilation shaft lead directly down to the labs. Without further ado, Dr Horrible opened up the latch and slid down the vent like a slide, landing in a heap at the bottom.

Luckily, the lab was empty when he crawled out of the vent, so he quickly assembled his find-a-thingamabob ray and located the forensic evidence before putting that into his pocket with another quick use of the Put-it-in-your-pocket ray. He was really quite good at developing rays, he mused.

Dr Horrible dashed back towards the vent and used his special gloves to easily scale back up the vents. He made his way back through the precinct, giving a wave to Detective Beckett (which was pointedly ignored), and dashed right out the main entrance.

Mission accomplished.

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><p><strong>Thanks for reading. :) <strong>


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